Shares in Britain’s largest energy supplier Centrica (CNA) dipped below the psychological 100p level today, their lowest since 1998.
Today’s move was exacerbated by the stock going ex-dividend by 8.4p - which will end up in shareholders’ pockets on the 27th June - so today’s 8% fall just reflects the large yield on offer.
READ MORE ABOUT EX-DIVIDENDS HERE
Centrica has paid 12p per share since 2016, but analysts expect the pay-out to fall by 22% to 9.3p next year and by a further 7% to 8.7p per share in 2020.
The dividend peaked in 2014 at 17p per share, therefore shareholders have seen their income fall by roughly 30% over the last five years.
ANALYSTS HAVE REDUCED THEIR PRICE TARGETS
Over the last year, consensus price targets have fallen from around 170p to 120p today, as the following charts show
Of the fourteen brokers covering the company, only one has a buy rating, with two thirds sitting on the fence with a neutral rating.
Analysts have highlighted the relatively mild winter, increasing customer churn and nuclear outages as potential headwinds for the company in recent weeks.
Centrica is due to update the market on first quarter trading on Monday 13th May before the market opens.
